Luncheon is a meal so popular amongst Britons both at Home and abroad, that the humblest treatise on cooking would be incomplete without a chapter specially dedicated to it. There are luncheons large, and luncheons small. The former elaborate, very pleasant, and sociable, yet alas! a little too alluring, and fatal in their effects upon the appetite for the rest of the day. The latter more enjoyable perhaps than their more ostentatious connections, for they are reserved for a few intimate friends, but affording just as much temptation to kill dinner.

At Madras we reserve our luncheon parties for the Sabbath, when the unfair sex has no official care away from home, and though few sit down to dinner on that day till nearly half past eight, the overwhelming recollections of the midday feast have hardly had time to pass away.

A far better meal for us all, - a very near relation of luncheon, - is the dejeuner a la fourchette of our French friends. Brillat Savarin's luncheon party, if you remember, assembled "at ten - military punctuality." At eleven o'clock we might bid our guests sit down, I think, without misgiving, and though we might invite them to breakfast, we could really give them a luncheon. I attended a party of this kind, not long ago, the complete success of which has encouraged me to advocate its adoption in supersession of luncheons at 2 p.m. The Frenchman takes his cafe au lait, with a roll, as we take our chota hazri, which slight refection carries him satisfactorily till eleven, or even twelve o'clock; the dejeuner a la fourchette is then a substantial meal. Cannot we, when there are no distracting office hours to think of, do likewise? A breakfast party ends about the hour that luncheons begin. Both hosts and guests have, therefore, ample time to recover their appetites, and to indulge in a quiet afternoon's rest, before the evening drive, and dinner.

A pleasant luncheon or breakfast party should possess the following characteristics:- a judiciously selected list of guests, a prettily arranged table, a light yet artistic menu, with cups of claret, sauterne, hock, or chablis, iced ad libitum, and in no way spoilt by sugar. Liqueurs may be handed round to finish with, and the best coffee you can make should follow. In composing your menu, you should avoid adhering in any way to the order and style of a dinner. Thus, you must not give any soup at all, but lead off with oysters in their shells accompanied by brown bread and butter cut thin, limes cut into quarters, and vinegars and peppers of kinds.

An old standing dish to commence a luncheon party used to be mulligatunny. If properly made, this soup is a meal in itself : there are so many condiments, spices, and highly flavoured elements in its composition, - not to mention the concomitant ladleful of rice which custom decrees, - that he who partakes of it finds the delicate power of his palate vitiated, as far as the appreciation of any dainty plat that may follow is concerned, whilst the edge of his appetite is left unto him sorely blunted. So I say, reserve mulligatunny for your luncheon at home when alone, enjoy it thoroughly, rice and all, and - nothing more.

Having discussed your oysters, some half dozen dishes or so may follow, carefully contrasted one with another, and by no means dinner-like in their order thus :-

An antipasto of oysters, or olives aux anchois.

Fish fricaseed with cucumbers, orlys, or a mayonnaise.

Fillets of beef piques with horse radish sauce or creme d'anchois, garnished with potato chips, or a dish of cotelettes a la Reforme, a la soubise, etc.

Maccaroni a, l' ltalienne, or au jambon.

Cold galantine of hen turkey, or capon, delicately sliced, and handed round, with a salad.

A Ceylon prawn curry swimming in creamy gravy, with pieces of vegetable marrow associated with it.

A chaud-froid of snipes. Fruits in cream; liqueur.

This menu is obviously susceptible of the pruning knife. At least one of the dishes could easily be cut out, and cheese with "green butter," and hors d'ceuvres again, might follow the sweet dish.

A really carefully executed mayonnaise is a grand luncheon dish, and a cauliflower, or any first class vegetable, au gratin is invariably acceptable. For a small luncheon party, after the oysters I would give a dish of fish, followed by a simple entree from class I, a cauliflower au gratin, the galantine, a mayonnaise, a sweet, cheese, and hors d'oeuvres. In fact, if you disabuse your mind of dinner altogether, and compose a little menu of mixed dishes, introducing some slices of cold dressed meat about the middle thereof, you cannot go far wrong. Spiced pressed beef, or corned hump, lamb and mint sauce, pigeon pie or game pie, or the galantine aforesaid, are the sort of dishes from which you can select your central effect. It not giving a mayonnaise, a salad ought certainly to accompany the cold meat, and potatoes artistically dressed may go round.

Canapes form a delicious luncheon dish, voici:- cut some slices of bread a quarter of an inch thick, and two inches long if heart-shaped, two inches in diameter if round, and two inches square if rectangular. Fry these a pale golden colour in butter, and set them on a dish to get cold. To complete the canape, first spread a layer of "green butter" over each piece of fried bread, upon that place a layer of prawn or lobster meat pounded with butter, and slightly seasoned with Nepaul pepper; smooth this with a dessert-knife, place a Leal of lettuce (cut from the golden heart) upon the top of the prawn meat, and a piece of beetroot shaped with your cutter. Over each canape when thus prepared, and placed in the dish for serving, pour a dessertspoonful of rich, thickly worked, mayonnaise sauce, iced. A little chopped olive, or chopped capers, or the two mixed, may be judiciously sprinkled over each cap of mayonnaise dressing. The dish should stand on ice before serving.